Territorial Need Indicators: A New Approach Part II

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn Part I of this article a typology of existing need indicators was developed. For the ‘meaning’ of a need indicator to be clear, the indicator must be theoretically based. More specifically, it should be rooted in theoretical conclusions about the policy of welfare interventions. In Part II, the theory of the need judgement as a cost-benefit decision is used to provide a basis for a need indicator. This method is then explicated with regard to social services provision for the elderly, so as to provide an indicator which is in fact a standard level of expenditure for social services departments in England and Wales.